Chasing the ghosts of Lewis and Clark and the English mariner William Broughton, Roger Daniels is a 21st century Columbia River explorer and amateur historian.

Daniels, 63 years old, is an east-Clark County community leader who looks at both the past and the future.

Today, he is a leading advocate for a public-private plan to build 400 homes, businesses, parks and trails on 26-acre Parker's Landing at Washougal, site of the former Hambleton Lumber mill.

"They are going to have parks and trails all the way from Lacamas Lake through the Washougal Greenway, Parker's Landing, along the waterfront to Steamboat Landing, Steigerwald Lake and Captain Clark Park," said Daniels, who supports the development plan but has no financial stake in it personally.

The mill partially burned in 2009 and closed in 2010, putting 40 employees out of work. It was later torn down to make room for development.

Lance Killian owns and wants to develop half the Parker's Landing property, and the Port of Camas-Washougal owns the other half, looking to develop its public features -- trails, bike paths, parks -- and perhaps expand its 350-slip marina, the largest in Clark County.

All that is subject to a lot more public discussion, and planning.

In the meantime, Daniels spends lots of time running his half dozen boats on the river and thinking about history, while also developing a historical record of his own.

Civic life

Daniels spent 27 years as a Clark College administrator, and he has had an extensive role in local civic life.

He led a drive in 1999 to pass a $51 million Washougal school building bond -- the first bond to pass after five failed attempts in 20 years -- co-chaired passage of a $9.5 million school maintenance levy the next year, and started the Washougal Schools Foundation.

"Roger is a perfect example and definition of a citizen," said former Washougal Mayor Jeff Guard. "Gracious, passionate, principled and a great spokesman for our little corner of the world. His passion for the city, and especially its history, are his greatest attributes."

The 2001 citizen of the year in Camas-Washougal and a member of the Clark College Hall of Fame, he also led the fight to stop Riverwalk on the Columbia, a private group that campaigned to use public funds for an elaborate development at the Port of Camas-Washougal.

He masterminded the building of Washougal's 85-acre Captain William Clark Park at Cottonwood Beach, helped save historic Steamboat Landing, and was a key booster for the St. Thomas Montessori School, the Fort Vancouver Regional Library and Fire District No. 1.

Along the way, Daniels has also sold more than $40 million in property on behalf of real estate clients over the past eight years."I didn't know I could do that," said Daniels, flashing his trademark grin. "I'm embarrassed to say how well I have done."

Daniels, a former champion Washougal High School wrestler, is tackling the riverfront's future. He was campaign manager for both port commissioners Bill Ward and Mark Lampton, and he harbors the idea that one day he may himself serve on the port commission -- as his father, David Daniels, did, in the early 1990s.

But what lights his fire is his obsession with river history.

He loves to check and recheck history books, upgrading accounts that he says need correction.

"Roger loves the river, and he loves local history," said his friend and fellow history buff, Roger Wendlick, author of "Shotgun on My Chest: Memoirs of a Lewis and Clark Book Collector." Wendlick himself was locally famous for portraying the hunter George Drouillard, a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, during the bicentennial celebration from 2001-2006.

"Roger Daniels is just anybody's brother," Wendlick said. "No one has more enthusiasm for history. We were Roger 1 and Roger 2, since we met on a 200th anniversary reenactment of Broughton's voyage up the Columbia in 1992."

Explorers' path

Daniels and Wendlick perform their own scouting missions of sorts, setting the historical record straight when possible with eyewitness observations.

"That's Point Vancouver," said Daniels, taking a hand off the steering wheel of his 26-foot Sea Ray cabin cruiser and pointing out a strip of land jutting into the river between Rooster Rock and Cape Horn. "They have it wrong on millions of maps."

The cartographers missed by a mile the location of Point Vancouver, which Broughton named for his commander, Admiral George Vancouver, Daniels said. "That lieutenant would not have located on a flood plain a piece of land to name for his commander," Daniels insisted, showing a sliver of riverbank that seems to point at Mount Hood. "THAT is Point Vancouver," he said, pointing again.

Daniels should know by feel; as a boy he scampered about on Reed Island sandbars just across the river from the flood plain, just downstream from the jutting point he now says is the real Point Vancouver.

He and Wendlick traveled out on the river a few weeks ago and surveyed the area in the light of a full moon, Wendlick said. The point of land shone in the moonlight and pointed right across the river toward Mount Hood. "I'd like to support Roger Daniels in his opinion," Wendlick said.

With Wendlick, Daniels has spent 20 years raking the historic record, tracing the footsteps of Broughton. The Englishman explored the river in 1792, sailing upriver from his ship at the coast 13 years before Lewis and Clark. Daniels also chaired Lewis and Clark bicentennial celebration committees in both eastern Clark County and Washington state.

His roots run deep in Southwest Washington. His ancestors from before the turn of the 20th century plied the river as fishermen, hard-hat divers and boat owners. He and his wife Kimberly raised two daughters – Katie, 22, and Kerri, 20.

View full sizeRoger Daniels points out land he claims to be Point Vancouver, named by British Lt. William Broughton in 1792.Dean Baker/Special to The Oregonian

After graduating from Washougal High in 1968, Daniels entered the Marine Corps and served from 1969 to 1973 as an embassy guard at Phnom Penh, Cambodia during the Vietnam War. He later entered Clark College, was elected student body president in 1974 and transferred to the University of Washington, where he rowed on an eight-man sweep that was 62 feet long.

A political science major, he went to Washington, D.C., and worked for U.S. Rep. Mike McCormack as an intern from 1976 to 1977. Then he became a college recruiter at Clark College, a job that evolved into director of admissions and finally director of athletics and college recruitment. During his watch, from 1985 to 1995, the students at Clark won 28 assorted league championships.

Daniels left Clark in 2004 to follow a new career path. He became a regional marketing director for the Cascade Title Company. In 2006, he started selling real estate.

He also worked on causes important to Washougal residents.

"The Washougal community is lucky to have Roger," said Rene Carroll, a historian and author of "Legendary Locals of Camas and Washougal," a book due out from Arcadia Publishing in December.

"He is truly one of the area's greatest supporters," Carroll said. "When you talk to him it is immediately clear just how proud he is of the quality of life we enjoy here; the rivers, the trails, the schools, the people. His knowledge of the local history surrounding Lewis and Clark is tremendous and is matched only by his enthusiasm for the future of Washougal."

But Daniels brushes off all the praise, saying he plans to keep studying history and promoting the future of Washougal.

"It's just such a great community," he said. "I love it here. The river, I guess, is in my blood."